JD Vance's first Republican convention will be his national introduction as Trump's running mate

MILWAUKEE (AP) — Donald Trump ’s running mate JD Vance will introduce himself to a national audience Wednesday night as he addresses the Republican National Convention.

The Ohio senator’s headlining address will be his first speech as the Republican vice-presidential nominee. In fact, this year's gathering also is the first RNC that Vance has attended, according to a Trump campaign source who was not authorized to speak publicly. A relative political unknown, Vance rapidly morphed in recent years from a severe critic of Trump to an aggressive defender.

The 39-year-old is positioned to become a potential leader of the former president’s political movement, which has reshaped the Republican Party and broken longtime political norms. The first millennial to join a major party ticket, he joins the race when questions about the age of the men at the top — 78-year-old Trump and 81-year-old President Joe Biden — have been high on the list of voters’ concerns.

Vance is expected to lean into his biography as someone who grew up poor in Kentucky and Ohio, his mother addicted to drugs and his father absent, but went on to the highest levels of US politics. It's a story meant to connect with voters in middle America and shed light on how Vance's upbringing shaped his positions on issues such as immigration, inflation and drugs, according to a person familiar with the speech who was not authorized to speak publicly about it.